secret circle
by missrocky598
Summary: what if it was alex who moved to crowhaven and not cassie...what if she knows more about new salem history than the circle would expect...what if the lives of the circle members rested in alex' palms
1. Chapter 1

Alexandra McCall was taking a walk on the beach. She was angry and yet she was not going to do anything about it. Dressed in a two peace bikini with a shawl around her waist, Alexandra watched as the girls on the beach glared at her. She found a spot on the beach away from everyone, she took out her laptop then took off the ribbon in her hair.

"You need rest" a voice said from behind her "how is it any of your business?" Alex asked

"you are so rude" Kendall said

"like I care" Alex said

"I had an amazing day" Kendall said

"go away" Alex said

Kendall stayed put and started blabbing about herself.

Alex noticed a boy with blonde hair; he was dressed in surfer shorts and a peach shirt. He was walking with his dog.

"who is he?" Alex asked

"I don't know just some kid I'm guessing" Kendall said

The boys dog came running towards Alex. Alex played with the dog for a little while.

"I am so sorry, Raj doesn't normally behave like this" the dog owner said

"its ok" Alex said trying to look up but miserably failed because it was too bright

"wow it is so bright" Alex said in her mind

"I know right" the boy said in her mind

'so he's a witch' Alex thought to her self

"here take these, I'd suggest you take them unless you want to leave the beach a different nationality" the boy teased

"thanks" Alex said

The boy's phone started to ring. "You go ahead I was just about to leave" Alex said grabbing her stuff

"do you want to head to the mall?" kendall asked

"I wish mum has me on karate practice today" Alex said

A few hours later Alex bumped into the boy.

"sorry" she said

"its ok" the boy said

"I suggest you hide in the dock of that boat, I will lure them away from you" Alex said

"how did you know?" the boy asked

"I live in that pent house by the beach, I saw you. You know Logan is in a pistol club at his university? So just go hide" she ordered him

He obeyed the order.

Alex picked up her book from where it dropped

"hi Logan" she greeted

"have you seen a blonde guy, ran passed here?" he asked

"yes I have he ran towards the rocks" Alex said

Logan grabbed her wrists and squeezed it tightly "are you sure?" he asked

"yes" Alex yelped

"Logan leave her she just a dumb blonde" Jake said

"excuse me! Unlike you I am a 16 year old who had enough credits to graduate high school at the age of 11, did you just call me dumb?" Alex asked

"Whatever" Jake said walking away

"Thank you" the boy said

"Welcome" Alex said

"you are not going to ask why I was hiding from them?" the boy asked

"no need to ask. I know their kind, the don't like people who are different" Alex said "and since you are not from around here.. I can do the math" she added

"all the same thank you" the boy said

"thank you for the loan" Alex said giving him his glasses

"you can keep them if you like" he said

"no thanks" Alex said

"ok at least let me give you something to say thank you" he said removing a crystal blue crystal necklace

'Chalcedony rose' Alex thought

"I insist" he said

"thank you" Alex said

"miss McCall, your mother grows impatient waiting for you" a man dressed in a suit said

"please tell her that I will be with her momentarily" Alex said

"I'm guessing I will see you around" Alex said

"yeah, and maybe one day I can make them pay for hurting you" the boy said kissing her hand

Alex smiled passing her hand through her hair

"bye" Alex said

"oh and if you ever feel lonely of scared just press the rock in your hand, squeeze it and think of me" the boy said

Alex nodded then walked away.

The boy watched as the girl dressed in black shorts, a black zip-up tank top top-bustier and black high-tops.

'I forgot to ask her name" the boy thought


	2. Chapter 2

The driver pulled up to the McCall's new house

"welcome home" miss McCall said

"what does this house have a better training facility. No, no I bet this entire house is made of mountain ash" Alex said then walked out of the car.

"ALEXANDRA!"

Alex walked through the house, examined every room. She walked downstairs: "3 storey building, 5 bedrooms, and hidden training facility, wow mother wow" Alex said

"make sure you practice your magic everyday" he mother said

"meh" Alex said

"I'm serious. You never know when I will leave, but its soon" her mother said

"if you want to continue preaching about how you are going to die why don't you just go ahead and die" Alex snapped then left the room

10 teenagers walked out of the house, number 10 Crowhaven road.

"guys looks like we have a new neighbour" a girl with jet black hair said

"what is she doing" another girl with strawberry blonde hair asked looking at the girl who was on the roof at number 12 Crowhaven road.

it was a 3 storey house, the girl was dressed in black shorts, a black tank top top-bustier and black high-tops. The girl walked over to a satellite on her roof. She grabbed something from her back pocket and connected it to the satellite. The group faintly heard someone shout for her to get down. The girl finished what she was doing and did some backflips to the centre of the rooftop, she slid off the roof to the second storey of the house.

The group gasped. The girl then balanced on the terrace, she looked to the ground then did a back flip off the terrace. Luckily she landed on her two feet. "now that is bad ass" one of the boys said. They noticed the girl grab her bag from the grass and get into a car. It was a black convertible Lamborghini eCr2. The girl pulled out of the drive way, she put on shades as she drove passed them. "she looks pretty" a girl with sunlight blonde hair said. "do you think she is one of us?" a girl with cool grey eyes said. "its possible" a scrawny looking guy said. "I guess we just have to find out huh?" the girl with jet black hair said. "don't do anything stupid Faye" the girl with sunlight blonde hair said.

Deborah drove to school on her BMX 569 motor bike in an attempt to get a better look at her neighbour. She found that the girl was sitting in her car. Deborah parked at the spot next to the girl. The girl pulled her convertible up, she took off her shades, and grabbed her bag. she got out of the car; she was talking on the phone.

"I was trying to fix my satellite, my connection was faulty….do I look like I was interested I breakfast with you?...no attachments mother, isn't that what you taught me?...im not interested in this conversation either so goodbye mother" the girl said putting her phone away.

Deborah noticed that the girl had a petite body with an hour glass-ish figure. "definitely bad-ass"

Alex walked into her A.P English class which was an easy class to look for. Alex hoped to slip to the back of the class unnoticed.

Alex got her English book and started scribbling in it.

"you are new here right?" the guy sitting next to her said.

"yes I am" she plainly said

"great, im Jeffrey lovejoy" the boy said

"Alex McCall" Alex said "im guessing you are on the basketball team"

"centre of attention" he joked "you interested, we can talk about it sometime if you like"

"sure" Alex said

A shadow fell over Alex. A girl was standing there a big, pretty girl, both tall and

Voluptuous. She had a mane of pitch-black hair and her pale skin was touched with the glow of confidence and power.

"Hello, Jeffrey," she said. Her voice was low for a girl's; vibrant and almost husky.

"Faye." Jeffrey's voice, by contrast, was noticeably unenthusiastic. He looked tense. "Hi."

The girl leaned over him, one hand on the back of his chair, and Cassie caught the scent of some heady perfume. "I didn't see much of you over summer vacation," she said. "Where've you been?"

"Around," Jeffrey said lightly. But his smile was forced, and his entire body was taut now.

"You shouldn't keep yourself hidden away like that. Naughty boy." Faye leaned in closer yet. She was wearing an off-the-shoulder top—completely off both shoulders. It left a great deal of skin exposed just at Jeffrey's eye level. The girl had honey-coloured eyes. They seemed almost to glow with a strange golden light. "You know, there's a new horror movie at the Capri this week," she said. "I like horror movies, Jeffrey."

"I can take them or leave them myself," Jeffrey said.

Faye chuckled, a rich, disturbing sound. "Maybe you just haven't seen them with the right girl," she murmured. "Under the proper circumstances, I think they can be very… stimulating."

Jeffrey wet his lips, looking fascinated in spite of himself, but also scared. Like a rabbit in a trap.

"I was going to take Sally down to Gloucester this weekend—" he began, voice strained.

"Well, you'll just have to tell Sally that… something came up," Faye said, raking him with her eyes. "You can come get me Saturday night at seven."

"Faye, I—"

"Oh, and _don't_ be late, all right? I hate it when boys are late."

All this time, the black-haired girl had not even glanced at Alex. But now, as she straightened up to leave, she did. The look she turned on Alex was sly and secretive. Then she turned back to Jeffrey.

"Oh, and by the way," she said, lifting one hand in a languid gesture that showed off her long red nails, " _she's_ from Crowhaven Road too."

Jeffrey's jaw dropped. He stared at Cassie a moment with an expression of shock and distaste.

"interesting" Alex smirked as she started writing in her book.

"ok class I want you all to write a poem, if you don't know what to write about, write about your dreams" the teacher said

"I live in the dark quarters of the world,

Without life nor light.

Anxious to live,

I walk the streets feeling my way leaning into my shapeless dreams.

Worlds of wretchedness

Where the will is watered down and men are confused with things,

I walk,

Lurching through the unlit streets with mystery,

I feel, arm in arm with ghosts and the night is too dark"

Alex looked at her page then turned it to write another poem

"ok time is up, who want to read" the teacher asked

"I do" Faye said

She walked to the front. "This is my poem," she said in her lazy, husky voice. "It's about fire."

Alex looked down at the poem on her own desk. Then Faye's voice caught her attention.

 _I dream about fire_ —

 _Tongues of flame licking me._

 _My hair burns like a torch;_

 _My body burns for you_.

 _Touch my skin and your fingers will stick_ —

 _You'll blacken like a cinder._

 _But you'll die smiling;_

 _Then you'll be part of the fire too._

As the entire class watched, Faye produced a match and somehow—Alex didn't quite see how—managed to light it. She touched it to the paper and the paper caught fire. Then, walking slowly, she moved to stand directly in front of Jeffrey Lovejoy, waving the burning paper gently before his eyes.

Howls, whistles, and desk banging from the audience. Many of them looked scared, but most of the guys looked excited, too. Some of the girls looked as if they wished _they_ dared to do something like that.

Voices called out, "See, Jeffrey, that's what you get for being so cute!" "Go for it, man!" "Watch out, Jeff, Sally is going to hear about this!"

Jeffrey just sat there, the back of his neck slowly flushing dull red.

As the paper was about to burn her fingers, Faye sashayed away from Jeffrey again and dropped it in the metal wastebasket by the teacher's desk. Mr Humphries didn't flinch when something in the wastebasket flared up, and Alex admired him for that.

"Thank you, Faye," he said evenly. "Class, I think we can call what we've just seen an example of…concrete poetry. Tomorrow we'll study some more traditional methods.

"class dismissed" he added

Alex walked to her next class which was A.P chemistry. She noticed a girl with cool grey eyes looking at her, almost like she was scanning her. Alex took her seat at the back of the class. She wasn't able to concentrate all she was doing was scribbling down numbers which didn't even make sense to her. She looked down at her page

" 11,3,46,11,25,11 : 11,46,11,96 : 9,10,39,2 : 27,75,77,62" the list had about 11 sets of numbers. The bell went off.

"class dismissed" the teacher said.

There was chaos in the hall way: "Look out! Heads up, everybody!" a shouting voice interrupted. Something was whizzing down the hall, scattering students right and left from its path. Dumbfounded, Alex saw that it was two guys on roller blades, laughing and bellowing as they tore through the crowd. Alex had a glimpse of dishevelled shoulder-length blond hair and almond-shaped, slightly tilted blue-green eyes as one passed—and then she saw it all again as the second one streaked by. The boys were identical, except that one was wearing a Megadeth T-shirt and the other's said: Motley Crüe. They were creating chaos as they went, knocking books out of people's arms and grabbing at girls' clothes. As they reached the end of the hallway, one of them caught a pretty redhead's miniskirt and deftly flipped it up to waist level. The girl shrieked and dropped her backpack to push it down.

Alex decided to ignore them and walk to the vending machine. She took out her wallet, she only saw 100 dollar bills.

"I have got to have some loose change" Alex thought

She found a 20 in her bag

She put it in the vending machine and got herself a sprite. A girl with a pixie-ish face walked up to the vending machine. "no sprite" the girl sighed

"you can have mine" Alex said to her

"really?" the girl asked

"sure" Alex said handing it to the girl

The girl took some money out to give Alex "its ok" Alex said getting herself a diet coke. Then walking away.

Alex went and found herself a nice lunch spot on the front lawn. Voices distracted her.

It was that girl, Faye. There were two other girls with her, and one of them was the biker who she saw earlier at the parking lot. The other was a strawberry blond with a tiny waist a well-developed chest. They were laughing and sauntering down the steps—right toward Alex. She kept quiet and hoped they'd pass her by, go all the way down the hill and off campus.

Instead they stopped on the landing just above Alex, sitting with their feet on the steps below and pulling out paper lunch bags.

They were so close that Alex could see the red stone blazing at Faye's throat. Although she was in shadow now, if she moved they wouldn't be able to miss her.

"Did anybody follow us, Deborah?" Faye asked lazily as she rummaged through her backpack.

The biker girl snorted. "Nobody's stupid enough to try."

"Good. Because this is top secret. I don't want you-know-who to hear anything about it," Faye said. She took out a stenographer's notebook with a red cover and laid it on her knee. "Now let me see, what shall we do to start this year off? I feel like something really wicked."

"Well, there's Jeffrey…" the strawberry blond said.

"Already begun," Faye said, smiling. "I work fast, Suzan."

Suzan laughed. When she did, her chest jiggled in a way that made Alex certain she wasn't wearing anything underneath her apricot-coloured sweater.

"I still don't see the point of Jeffrey Lovejoy," the biker girl said, scowling.

"You don't see the point of any guy, Deborah; that's your problem," said Suzan.

"And your problem is that you can't see the point of anything else," Deborah retorted. "But Jeffrey's worse than most. He's got more teeth than brain cells."

"It isn't his teeth I'm interested in," said Faye thoughtfully. "Who are you going to start with, Suzan?"

"Oh, I don't know. It's so hard to decide. There's Mark Fleming and Brant Hegerwood and David Downey—he's in my remedial English class, and he's developed this killer body over the summer. And then there's always Nick…"

Deborah hooted. "Our Nick? The only way he'd look at you is if you had four wheels and a clutch."

"And besides, he's taken," Faye said, and her smile reminded Alex of a crouching jungle cat.

"You just said you wanted Jeffrey—"

"They both have their uses. Get this straight, Suzan. Nick and I have an… arrangement. So you just back off and pick yourself a nice outsider, all right?"

There was a moment of tension, and then the strawberry blond shrugged. "Okay, I'll take David Downey. I didn't really want Nick anyway. He's an iguana."

Deborah looked up. "He's my cousin!"

"He's still an iguana. He kissed me at the junior prom, and it was like kissing a reptile."

"Can we get back to business?" Faye said. "Who's on the hate list?"

"Sally Waltman," Suzan said immediately.

"She already thinks because she's class president she can stand up to us, and if you take Jeffrey, she's going to be really mad."

"Sally…" Faye mused. "Yes, we'll have to come up with something truly special for dear old Sally…

What's wrong, Deborah?"

Deborah had stiffened, looking up the hill toward the school entrance. "Intruder alert," she said. "In fact, it looks like a whole delegation."

Alex had seen it too, a group of guys and girls coming through the main entrance down the hill.

"go away we don't need juniors sitting near us" Faye said

Deborah and Suzan smiled.

Frustrated, Alex shifted her weight. So far there had never been a moment when all three of the girls were looking away. Come on, turn _around_ , she thought.

The group of guys and girls went on standing there for a minute or two, exchanging angry glances. But finally they turned and walked back toward the school building—all except one.

"Uh, Faye? Did you mean I had to go too?" she said. She was a pretty, flushed girl, and young. Probably a sophomore, Alex expected her to get packed off like the others, but to her surprise Faye raised her eyebrows and then patted the landing invitingly.

"Why, Kori," she said, "of course you can stay. We just imagined you'd be eating in the cafeteria with the Princess of Purity and the rest of the goody-goodies." Kori sat down. "Too much goodness can get boring," she said.

Faye tilted her head and smiled. "And there I thought you were a namby-pamby little Puritan. Silly me," she said. "Well, you know you're always welcome here. You're almost one of us, aren't you?"

Kori ducked her head. "I'll be fifteen in two weeks."

"There, you see," Faye said to the others. "She's almost eligible. Now what _were_ we talking about? That new slasher movie, wasn't it?"

"That's right," Deborah said, showing her teeth. "The one where the guy chops people up and makes them into condiments at his salad bar."

Suzan was unwrapping a Twinkie. "Oh, Deborah, don't. You're making me sick."

"Well, you make _me_ sick with those things," Deborah said. "You never stop eating them. That's what those are, you know," she said

"I think I best be going" Kori said leaving the group alone.

"look Faye, it's Madame Class President herself. Sally. And there's _steam_ coming out of her ears."

"And I thought today was going to be boring," she murmured, clucking her tongue "Well, _hetto_ , Sally," she said aloud, standing and turning in one smooth motion. "What a lovely surprise. How was your summer?"

"Save it, Faye," said the girl who'd just marched down the steps. She was a good head shorter than Faye, and slighter of build, but her arms and legs had a wiry look and her fists were clenched as if she were prepared to do physical battle. "I didn't come out here to chat."

"But we haven't had a good talk in so long… Did you do something to your hair? It's so—interesting."

Alex looked at Sally's hair. It had a rusty cast to it, and looked frizzled and over-permed.

As the girl raised a defensive hand to her head "I didn't come to talk about my hair, either!" snapped Sally. "I came to talk about Jeffrey. You leave him alone!"

Faye smiled, very slowly. "Why?" she murmured, and in contrast to Sally's voice hers seemed even lower. "Afraid of what he'll do if you're not there to hold his hand?"

"He's not interested in you!"

"Is that what he told you? Hmm. He seemed very interested this morning. He's taking me out Saturday night."

"Because you're _making_ him."

"Making him? Are you suggesting a big boy like Jeffrey can't say no when he wants to?" Faye shook her head. "And why isn't he here now to speak for himself? I'll tell you something, Sally," she added, her voice dropping confidentially. "He didn't fight hard this morning. He didn't fight hard at all."

Sally's hand drew back as if she wanted to hit the bigger girl, but she didn't. "You think you can do anything, Faye—you and the rest of the Club! Well, it's time somebody showed you that you can't. There are more of us—lots more—and we're getting tired of being pushed around. It's time somebody took a stand."

"Is that what you're planning to do?" Faye said pleasantly.

"one day you will find yourself at the bottom of the steps with a broken neck" sally said

"is that so?" Faye asked

Alex had grown tired of waiting, she got up from her spot and walked towards the group as she walked towards there sally fell over, Alex had no option but to catch sally.

"watch it" sally said

"you bumped into me" Alex retorted

Sally flushed with embarrassment then stormed off.

She turned to face the three girls above her.

They were still standing with careless, unstudied elegance, but underneath their easy demeanour was violence. Cassie saw it in the sullen darkness of Deborah's eyes, and in the spiteful curve of Suzan's lips.

But most of all she saw it in Faye.

"Well, now, what do we have here?" Faye said in a throaty voice. "A spy? Or a little white mouse?"

"Oh, she is the one we saw on the roof this morning" Faye replied. "You mean _she's_ —" Suzan broke off.

"Yes."

"Whatever else she is, she's dead meat now," Deborah said. Her petite face was twisted in a scowl.

"Let's not be hasty," Faye murmured. "Even mice may have their uses. By the way, how long were you hiding there?"

"Long enough," she said, and shut her eyes in misery.

Faye descended slowly to stand in front of her. "Do you always spy on other people's private?

Conversations?"

"I was listening to music because I didn't think that I had any business listening to what you were saying," Alex said

"I was here first," she said defiantly.

"Very good," murmured Faye, and there was an odd look in her eyes. Then she turned her head.

"Anything interesting in her backpack?"

Alex saw, to her outrage, that Deborah was going through her backpack, throwing things out one by one. "Not much," the biker said, tossing it on the ground so the rest of its contents scattered down the hillside.

"All right." Faye was smiling again, a particularly unpleasant smile that made her red lips look cruel. "I think you were right the first time, Deborah. She's dead meat."


	3. Chapter 3

After lunch Alex wasn't interested in class so she went home.

She went to her basement, to study chemistry and then practice. She looked down at the pairs of numbers she had written, they were atomic numbers of element. She wrote down on her transparent board what symbols the numbers represented. Then she spotted it, all the numbers seemed to form a name.

"Diana, Adam, Faye, Susan, Deborah, Sean, Cris, Doug, Melanie, Laurel and Nick" Alex mumbled

"they are the coven" Alex smirked "the secret circle"

That night

Alex was dreaming that she was on ship, the ship hit a rock it started sinking.. no Alex was sinking…the large water body was consuming her, pulling her down.

"gosh" Alex said jolting awake

She looked at her watch 1:30. Alex got dressed in black pyjama bottoms, black Uggs and a grey body top. She grabbed her keys, her pride and prejudice novel and went to the coffee shop down town.

This town will drive me ballistic soon. Alex thought. She look through her pride and prejudice book where she put her poem. It wasn't there.

"Faye" she growled squeezing her cup so much that the coffee spilt on her hand.

Alex went to school with a bandage around her burnt hand, the first person she saw was Deborah, the biker, and Suzan, the pneumatic strawberry blond, were in the group. So were the two

Blonde guys who had been roller blading through the halls yesterday. And there were two other guys. One was a short boy with a hesitant, slinking look and a furtive smile. The second was tall, with dark hair and a handsome, cold face. He was wearing a T-shirt with rolled-up sleeves and black jeans like Deborah's. Nick? Thought Cassie, remembering the girls' conversation yesterday.

The reptile?

Alex put on her head phones and walked passed them. She walked to her locker and opened it. Dangling from the top of her locker by a piece of twine around its neck was a doll. The doll's head lolled grotesquely to one side—it had been pulled out of the socket. One blue glass eye was open; the other was stuck gruesomely halfway shut. It seemed. A boy with this shiny belt buckle that had his name engraved on it walked to her. She notice a peculiar stone on his buckle. "hematite" she thought.

"aren't you going to do something about that?" he asked her

"how APT" Alex said grabbing the doll and throwing it in the bin.

She grabbed her math text book and went to class.

Sean watch as the sunlight blonde girl walked away dressed in black jeans, a black crop and grey high-tops.

On Thursday morning, there was a bird in her locker. A stuffed owl. It stared at her with shining round yellow eyes. A custodian happened to be passing by, and she pointed it out to him mutely. He took it away.

On Friday morning Alex stopped in front of her locker. She didn't want to open it. But it exerted bizarre fascination over her

She dialed the combination slowly. The locker door opened.

She felt her eyes opening, straining as wide as the stuffed owl's.. Her stomach heaved. The smell…

Her locker was full of hamburger meat. Raw and red like flesh with the skin torn off, darkening to purple where it was going bad from lack of refrigeration. Pounds and pounds of it. It smelled like…

Like meat. Dead meat.

Alex slammed the locker shut. A hand grabbed her, she then she felt her backpack being pulled off her shoulder.

She turned and saw a pretty, sullen face. Malicious dark eyes. A motorcycle jacket. Deborah tossed the backpack past Alex, and automatically Alex whirled, following it.

On the other side she saw shoulder-length blond hair. Slanted, slightly mad blue-green eyes. A laughing mouth. It was one of the roller-blade guys—the Henderson brothers.

Alex stopped following the bag and just stood looking at them as she dug her nails into her palms.

"Welcome to the jungle," he sang. He threw the backpack to Deborah, who caught it and sung another line.

The laughter and singing rang in her ears, louder and louder.

Suddenly a tank arm thrust into her field of vision. A hand caught the backpack in mid-air. The laughter died.

She turned to see through a blur of tears the cold, handsome face of the dark-haired guy who had stood with Faye that morning two days ago… He was wearing another T-shirt with rolled-up sleeves and the same worn-in black jeans.

"Aw, Nick," the Henderson brother complained. "You're wrecking our game."

"Get out of here," Nick said.

"You get out," Deborah snarled from behind Cassie. "Doug and I were just—"

"Yeah, we were only—

"Shut up." Nick glanced at Alex' locker, with globs of meat still seeping out of it. Then he thrust the backpack at her. "You get out too," he said.

"thank you" Alex said

"no need to thank me, go get yourself cleaned up" he said pointing at her hand

She was about to walk away when Nick called out to her "being tolerant takes you nowhere"

Alex walked to her next class.

A girl slipped her a note that read:

" **Meet me in the old science building second floor after class, I think we can help each other.**

 **From a friend**

"who gave you this note?" Alex asked

"I cant tell you" the girl said

Alex turned the girl around, her eyes turned into a golden hue "who gave you this note" Alex asked again

"it was Faye but she told me to say it was from sally Waltman" the girl said

"you wont remember any of this, all you remember is giving me the note and saying it was from sally" Alex said

The girl nodded "go away" Alex shooed the girl away.

Alex went to the science building "Faye" she called

Faye appeared from one of the shadows

"You sent the note," Alex said flatly.

Faye smiled her slow, terrible smile. "Somehow I didn't think you'd come if I used my own name," she said.

"How do you like the little presents you've been finding?"

"Haven't you been sleeping well?" Faye continued, her throaty voice innocent. "You look awful. Or maybe your _dreams_ have been keeping you awake."

Alex turned to cast a quick look behind her. There was an exit there, but Suzan was in front of it.

"Oh, you can't go yet," Faye said. "I wouldn't _dream_ of letting you."

Alex stared at her. "Faye, just leave me alone…"

" _Dream_ on," said Deborah, and she laughed nastily.

Alex could make no sense out of this. But then she saw that Faye was holding a sheet of paper. It was smoothed flat, but it had once been tightly crumpled.

Her poem.

Anger blazed through her exhaustion. Blazed so bright that for an instant she was full of energy, lifted by it. "That's mine!" Alex said

Then something caught Alex' arms from behind, pinning them.

"Thank you, Deborah," Faye said, slightly breathless. She looked at Alex. "I suppose even a little white mouse will turn. We'll have to remember that. But just now," she continued, "we're going to have an impromptu poetry reading. I'm sorry the atmosphere isn't more—appropriate—but what can you do? This used to be the science building, but nobody comes here much anymore. Not since Doug and Chris Henderson made a little mistake in a chemistry experiment. You've probably seen the Henderson brothers—they're hard to miss. Nice guys, but a little irresponsible. They accidentally made a bomb."

"Of course, some people think it's unsafe here," Faye continued, "so they keep it locked. But we've never let a little thing like that stop us. It is _private_ , though. We can make all the noise we want and nobody will hear us."

Deborah's grip on Alex' arms was painful.

"Let me see… 'My Dreams,' by Alex McCall. Imaginative title, by the way."

"You don't have any _right_ —" Alex began, but Faye ignored her. She began reading in a theatrical, melodramatic voice:

"Each night I lie and dream about the one—"

"Who kissed me and awakened my desire—

"I spent a single hour with him alone—

"And since that hour, my days are laced with fire." Faye looked up. "That's it. What do you think, Deborah?"

"It stinks, you don't strike me as a girl to like boys" Deborah said, then gave a little wrench to Alex' arms. "It's stupid."

"Oh, I don't know. I liked some of the imagery. About fire, for instance. Do you like fire, Alex?"

Alex went still 'you have no idea'. That lazy, husky voice had a new note in it.

"Do you _think_ about fire, Alex? Do you dream about it?"

"Would you like to see a fire trick?"

Alex shook her head "let me go" Alex warned her breathing rate rising, the last thing she needed was this junk Faye was doing.

Faye snapped the piece of paper in her hand, forming it into a loose cone. Flame burst out of one corner at the top.

"Why don't you tell us who the poem is about, Alex? This boy who _awakened_ you—who is he?"

"for Christ sake there is no boy, it was an imaginative poem" Alex said leaned away, trying to escape the blazing paper in front of her face.

"Careful," Deborah said mockingly from behind her. "Don't get too close to her hair."

"What, you mean this close?" said Faye. "Or _this_ close?"

Alex had to twist her neck to evade the flame. Little glowing bits of paper were flying off in every direction. The brightness left an afterimage, and she could feel heat on her skin.

"Oops, that _was_ close. I think her eyelashes are too long anyway, Deborah, don't you?"

Alex was pissed off now, but Deborah wouldn't let go.

"Let go of me—" she gasped out.

"But I thought you liked fire, Alex. Look into the fire. What do you see?"

It was still blazing. Yellow, she thought. Fire is yellow and orange. Not red like they say.

All her senses were fixed on the flame. Its heat brought a dry tingle to her cheeks. She could hear the crumple of paper as it was consumed; she could smell the burning. And she could see nothing else. "gosh I want to put this flame off and burn you with it" Alex thought.

Grey ash and yellow flame. Blue at the bottom like a gas burner. The fire changed shape every second, its radiance streaming endlessly upward. Pouring out its energy…

Energy.

"Yes," Faye whispered.

"What are you _doing_? Let go of her—now!" A VOICE SAID

being was focused on the fire. It flared up suddenly, dissolving almost instantaneously into soft grey ash.

Faye was left holding only a stump of charred paper cone.

"I said let her _go!"_ Something bright came at Deborah. But not bright like fire. Bright like sunlight.

This girl looked like something from a stained-glass window. For the first time Alex saw her eyes, and they were green and clear, brilliant, as if light were behind them. Her cheeks were faintly flushed with rose, but it was natural colour, not makeup.

Her chest was heaving with indignation, and her voice, though clear and musical, was filled with anger.

"When Tina told me she'd delivered that note for you, I knew there was something going on," she said.

"But this is unbelievable. For the last time, Deborah, let her go!"

"buzz kill" Faye said to the girl

"who is she?" the girl asked

"I'm Alex McCall, I moved into number 12 Crowhaven road last week" Alex said standing up.

"Faye why would you do this, she's a neighbour" the girl said

"she is only half Diana" Deborah snapped

"shut up" Diana said

"I think I will leave you to deal with whatever is going on here" Alex said walking out

Diana followed her

"let me take you home" Diana said

"I'm ok thank you" Alex said opening her car door

"ok uhm if you want to hang out feel free to come number 1 Crowhaven road" Diana said.

Alex slammed the door a speed off "Faye what are we ever going to do with you?" Diana thought.


	4. Chapter 4

Melanie and Laurel went over to Diana's place

"hey have you heard about the new girl?" Laurel asked

"yeah Faye" Diana said "I found the harassing her"

"you cant fight everyone's battle di" Melanie said

"I know but the girl uhm Alex, she didn't seem scared, its like she was tolerating them" Diana explain

"I hope you are not just going to pick her up like a puppy off the streets" Melanie said

"I don't know about you but I think she is one of us and very powerful" Laurel said

The doorbell went off. Diana opened it

"Alex" Diana greeted. Alex had changed black joggers and a grey crop-top.

"I brought pizza as a way to say thank you" Alex said to Diana.

"come in" Diana said.

Alex went into the house. "guys this is Alex, she leaves at number 12 and she brought pizza" Diana said

"its veggie pizza" Alex said to Laurel.

"Alex this is Melanie"

"I know she is in my A.P chemistry class" Alex said

"and that is Laurel" Diana said

"I met her, she is the one who gave me her sprite" Laurel smiled

"anyway Diana I just wanted to say thanks and that im sorry for storming off" Alex said

"its ok, Faye has an upsetting effect on people" Diana said

"I hear she in your club, although I don't know what the 'club' is but people seem scared of it" Alex said her eyes becoming colder sending a shiver down Melanie's spine. Its not that Alex eyes were unfriendly, they were just unpassionate. Kind of like Nick's

"don't judge the group by Faye" Diana said lightly

"how is it that you were so tolerant with Faye's threats" Laurel asked

"when you live my life for a couple of weeks you become very slow to anger" Alex said

"living with your mum can't be that bad" Laurel said

"you wish; in my house its always karate practice, study, archery practice, study, its like she is training me to be an assassin" Alex laughed, g

"what happened to your palms?" Diana asked as she noticed nail marks on Alex' palm

"total calm and control comes with a price." Alex said. Laurel, Melanie and Diana looked confused "Henderson's and Deborah" Alex said.

On Monday Alex walked out of her house and started walking towards the school, she didn't feel like driving. She was dressed in black jeans, a grey and black long sleeved shirt with rolled up sleeves and black platform high-tops. She had her black Prada Fringe bag slung over her shoulder and a cup of coffee in her hand.

 **Alex was surrounded by fire, she tried to look for an escape but miserably failed, the fire kept drawing closer and closer to her.**

A car honk snapped her out of her trance. It was Diana who was driving her black Volvo. "morning" Diana said "hey" Alex greeted. "hope in" Diana said. "thanks" Alex lamely said.

When they got to school, guys kept following Diana up, asking her out, complimenting her etc. which Alex found rather irritating. Alex left Diana in her swarm of boys and walked into her A.P history class.

Shortly Diana also walked in. "youre in my class?" Diana asked

"im an honour roll" Alex said.

At lunch, Alex was invited to eat with the 'club'. Alex wondered how she hadn't seen the back room of the cafeteria before. She understood, though, how Diana and her friends hadn't seen _her_ —the entrance to the back room was swamped with people. People standing around, people hoping to be invited in.

They blocked any view those seated inside might have of the cafeteria proper.

It was easy to see why this room was the favourite gathering place. There was a TV mounted on one wall, although it was too noisy to hear it. There was even a microwave and a Very fine juice machine. Alex was aware of stares on her back as she went in and sat down beside Diana.

Melanie and Laurel were there. So was Sean, the little slinking boy with the shiny belt. So was a guy with dishevelled blond hair and slightly tilted blue-green eyes—

"That's Christopher Henderson—Chris, say hi; this is Alex McCall"

The blond guy turned and gave her a nod.

Sean, Alex noticed, was a different boy in here than he'd been by the lockers. He and Laurel were the only juniors.

They'd been eating just a few minutes when a strawberry-blond head appeared in the doorway. Suzan looked cross.

"Deborah's got a lunch detention and Faye's off doing something, so I'm eating in here," she announced.

Diana looked up. "Fine," she said evenly, then added, "This is my friend Alex, Suzan. Alex, this is Suzan Whittier."

There was a moment of tension. Then Suzan rolled her china-blue eyes. "Hi," she said finally, and immediately sat down and began removing things from her lunch sack.

"Oh, my God—you're _not_ still eating those! Do you know what's in those things, Suzan?" Laurel asked

"Beef fat, lard, palm oil—and it's about fifty percent white sugar…" Alex said subconsciously.

Everyone gave her a questioning look. Alex raised her eye brow then stood up "I will see you around" she said

"where-" she cut Melanie off.

"A.P biology test after lunch" she stated the left

That Friday, Kori came to the back room for lunch. She seemed in awe of the older girls and was even absently respectful of Alex

Neither Faye nor Nick had shown up in the back room that week.

But Kori Henderson was nice. Now that Alex knew, she could see the resemblance to Chris and Doug

. Kori was an ordinary, friendly, going-on-fifteen year old girl.

"I've been waiting so long for it, I can't believe it's finally here," she was saying at the end of lunch. "I mean, just think, next Tuesday's the day! And Dad says we can have the party down on the beach—or at least he didn't say we _couldn't_ —and I want to make it really special, because of it being a holiday, too…" She trailed off suddenly.

"So, uh, do you think Adam will be back in time for-—for—I mean, when do you think Adam will be back?" Kori stuttered.

"I don't really know. I hope it's soon, but…" Diana gave a little shrug. "Who can tell? Who can ever tell?"

"Who's Adam?" Alex said.

"You mean she hasn't told you about Adam yet? Diana, there's such a thing as carrying modesty too far," Melanie said, her cool grey eyes disbelieving.

"No, but really," she said. "Who is he? Is he your boyfriend?"

"Only since childhood," Laurel said. "They've been together forever."

"But _where_ is he?"

"No, he's just—visiting some people," Diana said "he's nice. I think you'll like him." She smiled.

Alex looked toward Laurel for more information. Laurel waved a zucchini stick in the air. "Adam's your boyfriend…" Alex said trying not to show that she was uninterested in the conversation.

Kori said, "Yes, he's…"

"He's cute, though," Kori was saying fervently.

"That _body_." Susan said

"Those _eyes_ ," Laurel said.

"You'd better go easy," Melanie said, smiling. "You're going to drive Diana crazy before he gets back."

"Crazy enough to give somebody else a chance, maybe?" Sean piped up.

"Maybe, Sean—sometime in the next millennium," Laurel said quietly.

"Adam and Diana don't even _see_ anyone of the opposite sex except each other. For years Adam thought the rest of us were boys."

"Which in Suzan's case took quite a lot of imagination," Laurel put in.

Suzan sniffed and glanced at Laurel's flat chest. "And in some people's case took no imagination at all."

"What about you, Alex?" Diana interrupted. "Did you leave a boyfriend back home?"

"No boys are a waste of precious time" Alex said then looked to the boys "no offense"

There was no further conversation about boyfriends or dates. After Alex got bored with their chats, she got up "I will see you all later" Alex said grabbing her coffee.

"don't you have class?" Cris asked

"I had enough credits to graduate in 10 grade, do the math" Alex smirked then walked away leaving the rest of the group in shock

As she walked to the parking lot Alex called in a favour. Her mum's assistant pulled over in the parking lot, Alex quickly got in. she was in so much pain. Her heart was arching terribly.

Once at her house Alex rushed to her room where she collapsed to the floor.

Diana, Melanie and Laurel decided to go check up on Alex,

The butler opened the door.

"were here to see Alex?" Melanie asked politely

"ah yes miss McCall is freshening up, let me escort you to her room" the man said.

Alex room walls were painted a dark purple and her curtains were black. Which was expected of Alex.

When Alex awoke, she had a terrible feeling about Kori's birthday and she knew what it was. "someone is going to die" Alex thought but she didn't know who.

Alex walked out of her bathroom dressed in black tights and a black shirt only to find Diana, Melanie and Laurel.

"hi" Alex said

"we wanted to check on you, someone said they saw you in the lot and you didn't look so good" Diana said

"it was just a little thing, no need to worry" Alex said

"why don't you stay for dinner?" Alex asked trying to be nice "sure" the girls said. You don't mind about not being invited to Kori's party?" Laurel asked. "I don't know Kori that well and I hate parties" Alex said coolly


	5. Chapter 5

On Tuesday four girl went to school early. Diana had a banner that she and Laurel had painted, saying "Happy Birthday, Kori." She was going to hang it above the main entrance of the school. Diana went to the car to get the tape. She walked to the top of the stairs and stood bouncing on her toes. It was a clear, crisp day, and mixed in with the luxurious green all around her.. The sumac across the road was already red. And there was more red at the bottom of the hill… She took a step or two down and leaned forward, looking again.

A violent shiver went through her. God, it was cold. Whatever was down there was half hidden by the underbrush, but it wasn't a bush itself, she decided. It looked more like a sweater somebody had discarded.

She took another step down. The sweater, it had a _shape_ —she could see what looked like the sweater's arm. In fact, it looked like a whole bundle of clothes. See, there was something like jeans lying below it…

Suddenly Alex couldn't breathe.

She was very close now, and everything had gone into slow motion—everything but her whirling. No _person_ could bend that way…

Alex' body was reacting. Her chest was heaving and her muscles were shaking. Her knees were trembling so hard she could scarcely remain standing. And her vision was sparkling at the edges as if she were going to faint.

The body had hands with little pink fingers and a turquoise ring…

Where had she seen a ring like that before? the ring was Kori's.

Alex run up the stairs "help" she screamed. Diana appeared, running. She caught Alex by the shoulders.

"What is it?"

"Kori! Broken neck, down the hill"

Alex was completely falling apart. She couldn't cope—she hated having the sight if she couldn't do anything to stop what was going to happen.

It was her it was sally, we all heard what she said" Faye said

"even she did" Deborah said pointing at Alex

Kori's brothers were fuming, their sister was dead! Alex said.

Alex was angry, why couldn't she have saved Kori?!

"one day you will find yourself at the bottom of the hill with a broken neck" sally had said

"it was the outsiders, sally said she would do it" Deborah said

"what if it was someone in the club who was worried that Kori would enter on the wrong side" Laurel said

"we all know it wasn't Diana, Kori idolised Diana" Melanie said

"I think we need to have a meeting" Diana said.

The glass door swung open it was Nick, his face stone cold revealing nothing. Cris and Doug's eyes were blood shot with tears and anger, Deborah was stone cold, nothing new, Diana was pale, Faye looked amused, Laurel and Sean scared, Susan was angry and Melanie was thoughtful.

"I like nothing more than to leave" Alex said

Her reaction socked people the most, Alex hadn't known Kori that well but she was far beyond angry. There was this look on her face, a cold, dangerous look that no one had seen on her before. A look that screamed vengeance.

Alex walked out of the cafeteria, the group heard something like glass break.

"what was that?" Diana asked one of the outsiders

"Alex punched the A.P biology glass door" the outsider said

"how strong is that girl" Faye mused

Alex was dreaming of the ocean—the dark and endless ocean. The ship was in trouble—she could hear the timbers creaking beneath her. They were going aground. And something was lost… lost…

She came awake all at once, sucking in her breath. Was that a noise?

Body tense, she listened. Silence. Her eyes struggled to pierce the darkness.

And she could _feel_ …

A presence. Like a shadow in front of her.

Her eyes were staring into the utter blackness

She heard a shuffling noise. It was coming toward her. something was clapped over her mouth.

Before, there had been stillness, now all was dizzy motion. She was fighting, her arms were being caught and held. Something else had her feet.

She was being rolled over and over

She felt herself being lifted; she was choking. Something was over her head, suffocating her.

It was taking her out of her bedroom. Taking her downstairs—out of the house. It was taking her outside

Panting, Alex felt her body go limp.

She was no longer being carried; she was being held. Then tilted… her legs kicked and touched ground.

She was being set on her feet. The sheet was unwinding.

Then, from directly behind her, she heard a chuckle.

Faye.

"Walk," Faye said

"Straight ahead," Faye said.

They were on the beach.

"Stop."

"Faye im not interested in—" she managed to get out.

"Be quiet Don't talk unless you're asked a question. Don't move unless you're told. Do you understand?"

"Now take one step forward. Turn to your left. Stop. Stay right there. Don't make a sound."

Hands moved at the back of Alex' neck. Then there was a glorious rush of cool air as the hood was lifted away.

But there was the moon in front of her. Pure white, it formed a perfect crescent over the ocean.

The ocean was as black as the sky. And in front of it stood a figure that seemed to shine with a pale light.

 _Diana?_

She was wearing a thin white shift that left her arms bare. Clasped around one upper arm was a wide cuff of silver with strange engraving on it. On her forehead was a sort of diadem with a crescent moon, the horns pointing upward. "the master tools?" Alex questioned

In her hand was a dagger.

"Turn around," a voice said.

A circle was drawn in the sand, a big one. Inside and outside were candles, stuck right into the beach.

Wax was melting on the sand. The candles were all sizes, all colours. Some looked as if they had been burning a long time, from the amount of wax pooled beneath them and the way they had slumped. Every flame was dancing in the slight breeze.

Inside the circle were the members of the Club.

Diana walked past Cassie and stepped into the circle

Diana spoke, her voice clear and musical, but she was not speaking to Alex.

"Who challenges her?"

Faye's voice rose in answer. "I do."

Alex didn't see the dagger until Faye held it at her throat. It pricked, pressing slightly into the hollow,

"I challenge you," Faye said. "If there is any fear in your heart, it would be better for you

to throw yourself forward on this dagger than to continue. So what is it, Alex?" she added,

"im not scared of you" Alex coolly retorted

"Then step inside," Faye invited.

Alex took a step forward, she could feel a tiny trickle of wetness on her throat as it withdrew and

Faye stepped back.

Then she looked down. She was inside the circle.

"Come to the centre," Diana said after closing the circle.

"Turn around," Diana ordered.

Alex felt hands on her shoulders, spinning her faster and faster. She was being whirled around and pushed from side to side, from person to person.. Alex was dizzy, disoriented.

Hands steadied her, stood her facing Diana again. She was slightly breathless and the world was spinning.

"You've been challenged and you've passed the tests," Diana informed her

"Now are you willing to swear?"

"Will you swear to be loyal to the Circle? Never to harm anyone who stands inside it? Will you protect and defend those who do, even if it costs you your life?"

"Yes."

"Will you swear never to reveal the secrets you will learn, except to a proper person, within a properly prepared Circle like the one we stand in now? Will you swear to keep these secrets from all outsiders, friends and enemies, even if it costs you your life?"

"Yes,"

"By the ocean, by the moon, by your own blood, will you so swear?"

"Yes."

"Say, 'I will so swear.' "

"I will so swear."

Diana raised the dagger above her head, pointing the blade at the sky. Then she pointed it to the east, toward the ocean, then to the south, then toward the western cliff, then toward the north. Finally, she pointed it at Cassie. The words she spoke as she did sent a shiver down Alex' spin:

 _Earth and water, fire and air,_

 _See your daughter standing there._

 _By dark of moon and light of sun,_

 _As I will, let it be done._

 _By challenge, trial, and sacred vow,_

 _Let her join the Circle now._

 _Flesh and sinew, blood and bone,_

 _Alex now becomes our own"_

"That's it," Laurel said softly from behind Alex. "You're in."

"now that you are in do you have any questions?" Diana smiled

"no but I do have something to show you" Alex said

She lifted her hands towards the fire which went ablaze, she then the made a spiral in the air and the fire engulfed the circle members

People gasped

"I knew she knew she was a witch" Faye said

"so you knew about us" Sean asked

"clearly" Alex said

"why didn't you say anything?" Melanie asked

"because it was none of my business and besides I know why you let me join" Alex said

"you want to activate the covens full powers and you want me to help you find your sisters killer" she said looking at the circle.

"I know everything the towns history, the book of shadows and it might fascinate you to know that I have my full powers" Alex said sitting down.

A wet nose thrust under her hand.

What stopped her from screaming was something like heart failure; the shriek got to her throat, and then she actually _saw_ the dog and everything went fuzzy.

The dog stared back at her, mouth open and laughing, as if to say, "Aren't you happy to see me?"

Then Alex raised her eyes to look at the dog's master.

He was looking down at her, as he had that day on the beach. It was really him, the first guy to every make Alex' knees go weak. of course Alex wasn't going to let that show. She was a no attachments type of girl, she planned on stepping on her emotions for as long as she could until she got over him. She gave a plain look to the group as if it to say 'who is this?'

"Oh, Adam—I'm _so_ glad you're back."

Alex was shocked yet happy that this gave her another reason to stay away from the boy.

Held her. He was holding Diana. And his name was Adam.

" _You mean she hasn't told you about Adam yet_? _Diana, there's such a thing as carrying modesty too far…" "Who is he? Is he your boyfriend?..." "He's nice. I think you'll like him_ …"

"What's wrong? I tried to get back for Kori's initiation, but where is she? What's going on?" He looked at Alex. "And—"

"Her name is Alex McCall," Diana said.

"nice too meet you" Alex said with a smirk

"And we just initiated her instead of Kori." Diana said

" _What_?" Adam demanded. "Why?"

. "Because Kori's body was found at the bottom of the school hill. Her neck was broken."

Adam's grip on Diana tighten. He shut his eyes briefly as she leaned against him, shaking again. Then he looked at the Henderson brothers. "Chris… Doug…"

Doug's teeth were clenched. "Outsiders did it," he said.

"Alex this is Adam" Diana said

Alex gave him a nod.

"so what has he been doing?" Adam said to Nick

"nothing at all" Nick said "in fact I was just about to leave" Nick said standing up

"he has been coming for meetings" Diana said

"that's all we can ask of him" Melanie said

"ok I need to get home, I have a chemistry test to study for and Adam the artifice you discovered purify it before you use it.. I bid you all good night" Alex said

"how do you know" Adam asked

"I have the sight, which is both a blessing and a curse" she said

"oh and if you want to practice your powers or have meetings come to my house, its made of mountain ash. Its safer and keeps away the supernatural" Alex said

"Alex!" Diana called out

"yeah?" Alex asked

"thank you" Diana said

Alex nodded.

Nick walked away. "looks like we have a female version of Nick" Adam said

'this should be interesting' Deborah said.

The Wednesday meeting was tense Faye kept asking Diana to let everyone activate the skull, Diana kept saying no. Faye then said that if they didn't use the skull she would call for a leadership vote. Alex and Nick refused to give a vote both of them just sat on the couch in the back room, with headphones watching as the others argued looking lost in their own little worlds.

Kori's funeral was on Friday, Alex seemed to be taking down mental notes. A fight broke out between Doug and some guy Kori went out with over the summer. Alex watched as the circle tried to dismantle them. After a while Alex got tired of watching the fight, she walked to Kori's ex-boyfriend, grabbed his hand and twisted it. "I suggest you stop this because I doubt you want to be embarrassed by a girl" Alex warned.


	6. Chapter 6

Saturday came the circle went over to Alex house, "so fancy" Faye mused

"don't touch anything" Alex said leading them to her bedroom "we are doing it from here?" Adam asked

"of course not" Alex said opening a secret panel on her bookshelf which revealed an elevator.

The circle piled into the elevator, "welcome to the basement" Alex said

"you guys are tight on security" Doug said

"I have a question do you wear any colour other than black?" Sean asked

"no" Alex said

"ok uhm the stuff you need is in that bucket, if any supernatural creature is released it can only leave this house if someone tells it its free to leave and opens the main door for it" Alex explained "its sort of like how you guys can only come into my house if I welcome you"

"so isn't it that only you have the power to set it free?" Melanie asked

"not today, mum just called she needs me downtown, I will try to get back as soon as possible.. so please do not break the circle, do not set a spirit free in my house but if you do don't let it leave because there is no telling what it will do" Alex warned

"I will be back in I don't know how long" Alex said then walked out

"wait we need a full circle" Diana said

"I already put that into consideration" Alex said unclasping her necklace "put this own, it has enough if my power for the circle to actually consider my presence" Alex said

The circle members gave her a look "I will teach you…..maybe" Alex said. "When you start the spell the necklace will glow" Alex explained

"I will explain later" Alex said "see you" she said walking out of the room.

Alex walked out of her house then something hit her head. She woke up in and abandoned ware house, she was tied to a chair, her hands were cuffed to the railing on the roof, she tried to do a spell. "anti-magic" she thought. There was a note on the wall opposite her;

" **hey sweetheart, you have 30 minutes to leave the warehouse. On the far left corner of the ware house is a bomb. Have fun"**

After Alex walked out Diana drew the circle on the floor and turned on the candles. Everyone walked into the room.

" **im back" she said dressed in a baby blue shirt and black shorts. "you are back?" Diana said not taking notice of Alex' change of outfit. "yes mum changed her mind" Alex said putting on a 100 watts smile.**

 **Diana sat next to Alex. Diana forgot that she was wearing Alex' necklace**

 **Alex had ended up between Faye and Adam. She didn't know how it had happened. She had been in line to sit next to Sean, but somehow Faye had gotten in front of her. Maybe Faye didn't want to sit by Adam.**

 **Adam's knee was pressing against hers. That was how Diana had told them to sit. She could feel the warmth of it,**

 **Then all the lights went out. Fluorescent panels had abruptly gone off.**

 **It was pitch-black in the garage. The only light now was the flame of the single candle Diana held.**

 **"All right," Diana said quietly. "We're just going to be looking for the last imprints left. Nothing more than that; nobody goes in really deep until we know what we're dealing with. And I don't have to tell anybody that whatever happens, we don't break the circle."**

 **Diana touched the candle flame to the candle Melanie held out to her. The flame doubled.**

 **Diana reached into the ring of candles and pulled off the black cloth.**

 **The skull was facing her directly at Alex, its empty eye sockets staring at her. But that wasn't the most alarming thing**

 **It almost looked—alive.**

 **the others had straightened, tensed.**

 **"Now," said Diana. "Find someplace inside the skull that interests you. Concentrate on it, look at the details. Then look for more details. Keep looking until you find yourself drawn into the crystal."**

 **There were internal fractures that seemed to be acting as prisms to form miniature landscapes. The closer Alex looked, the more detail she saw.**

 **That looks like a spiral or tornado, she thought. And that—that looks almost like a door. And a face…**

 **When she looked back at the skull, she couldn't find the misty face again. the skull had developed another disturbing quality. Things seemed to be moving inside it. It was almost as if the skull were made of water, contained inside a thin skin, and things were drifting slowly around.**

 **Alex stared at the little prismatic fracture in the left eye socket, just where the pupil of a real eye would be.**

 **The more she looked, the larger it seemed.**

 **She was inside the skull.**

 **Alex gazed at the door, her scalp tingling.**

 **She concentrated on the door, willing it to open.**

 **But at that instant a scream tore through the room.**

 **Alex felt herself being pulled backward. She saw a face coming towards her.**

 **"No!" cried Diana.**

 **Alex felt it at the same instant, an overwhelming sense of evil.**

 **She never quite knew what happened next. Sean was sitting on the other side of Faye**

 **They were struggling.**

 **Alex felt the pressure of Faye's knee leave hers. The circle was broken, and Faye's candle went out.**

 **There was a faint cry in the darkness.**

 **Then everything was quiet again.**

 **"Turn on the** _ **lights**_ **," somebody gasped.**

 **Adam was standing by the light switch. Diana was standing too, her face white and frightened. Around the circle every face reflected alarm and consternation—except Nick's. His was impassive as usual.**

 **Faye screamed at Sean "You pushed me!"**

 **"No, I didn't**

 **"You lying little** _ **worm! You**_ **were trying to get away. You were going to break the circle."**

 **"No, I** _ **didn't!"**_

 **"All right!" shouted Diana.**

 **"It doesn't matter who did what," Adam said, his voice tense. "What matters is that—energy—that escaped."**

 **"What energy?" Faye said sullenly, examining her elbow for bruises.**

 **"The energy that knocked you flat on your back," Diana said grimly.**

 **"I** _ **fell**_ **. Because this little snot** _ **pushed**_ **me."**

 **"It's my fault. I shouldn't have let this happen."**

 **"You mean you should have kept the skull a secret from the rest of us," Faye said sharply. "For your own personal use."**

" **wait we know its not out of the house yet" Adam said. "We've got to stop it," Adam added**

 **Susan was fiddling with a button on her blouse. "How?"**

" **guys I think its out" Sean said pointing. There was an open panel on the ground**

" **dammit who opened that?" Deborah asked**

" **I think lets call it a night" Alex said**

 **The group started filing out one by one.**

" **sorry again Alex" Diana said.**

" **its all good" Alex said.**

 **Alex went to the beach… only to be followed by Adam**

 **"Why didn't you want anyone to know that we'd met before?" he said simply.**

 **"Oh, I don't know," she said "I just didn't want anybody—like Suzan or Faye—to get the wrong impression. You don't mind, do you? It didn't seem very important."**

 **Adam was looking at her in an odd way "If that's what you want, I won't mention it," he said.**

 **"I've been meaning to give this back to you. Here." Alex said giving Adam the chalcedony rose**

 **"Thanks for loaning it to me," she said**

 **A wry smile had touched Adam's lips but it disappeared almost instantly**

 **"You've changed," he said, and there was wonder in his voice**

" **you don't stay the same forever" Alex teased**

 **"You're good," he said. "But I'm not completely stupid. There's something you're not telling me, and I want to know what it is."**

" **there's nothing I'm not telling you."**

 **"Listen to me," he said, and to her dismay he stepped closer. "When I first met you, I had no idea you were one of us. How could I? But I knew that you were different than that phony friend of yours. Not just another pretty girl, but somebody special. You weren't like any girl I'd met on the outside—you could accept mysterious things—even mystical things—without being afraid of them or trying to destroy them on sight. You were… open. Tolerant. You didn't automatically hate and reject anything different. I saw you hold out for my sake you let him** _ **hurt**_ **you for my sake, and you didn't even know me. And afterward, I felt something special with you. A special understanding. I can't explain it. But I've thought about it ever since. I've thought about you a lot, Alex, and I was just waiting to tell Diana about you. I wanted her to know that she was right, that there were some outsiders who could deal with us"**

" **but im not an outsider" Alex said**

" **but I thought you were, And in all that time, i was never sorry I'd given you the chalcedony rose but I wanted to be there for you if you were. If you'd ever done what I told you, held it tight in your fist and thought of me, I'd have known, and I'd have tracked it down,**

 **no matter where you were. I thought you were that special. And now I get back—and find you're not an outsider after all. I was** _ **glad**_ **to see you here, and to hear you'd joined the Circle. And from what Diana's said, she saw how special you were right away too. But I couldn't tell her I knew you—because for some reason you didn't want people to know.**

 **I respected that; I kept my mouth shut and figured you'd explain when you could. And instead you've been giving me the brush-off all week, and now you act as if nothing ever happened between us. You even call on the Powers against me, to make me believe a lie.**

 **And now I want to know** _ **why**_ **."**

 **"Because I'm in love with you. That day on the beach, I felt something special too," Alex said. "But I felt—more. I felt as if we were…connected somehow. As if we were being pulled together. As if we belonged together, I could see something connecting us, like a silver cord. And I felt so close to you, as if we understood each other."**

 **"Alex" Adam said**

 **Her breath caught in her throat as she saw** _ **it**_ **again. The silver cord**

 **what was** _ **happening**_ **? The world had gone still, and it contained only the two of them.**

 **"Adam," she said. "We…"**

 **He was close to her now; she could feel his warmth, feel their electrical fields merging. She felt his hands cupping the backs of her elbows. Then slowly, slowly, she felt herself being drawn toward him until he kissed her. The silver cord could not be denied any longer.**

 **"We can't," he said in a thick voice. "We** _ **can't**_ **…"**

 **Her breath slowing, she buried her face again in his shoulder.**

 **"Alex I love you," he said.**

 **The silver cord had wrapped them in a shining cocoon**

 **"we shouldn't have don't that" Alex whispered.**

 **"God, Alex—I'm sorry…"**

 **"It's my fault I shouldn't have said anything. We just have to make sure that never happens again, in short we shouldn't be alone ever" Alex said**

 **"I admire your self-control," he said, even more bleakly.**

" **We need to make an oath" Alex said**

 **"We need blood." He stood and took a knife out of his back pocket**

 **Without any particular flourish, he cut his palm. Then he handed the knife to her.**

 **Alex gritted her teeth and put the knife against her palm**

 **"Fire, Air, Earth, Water."**

 **Listen and witness."**

 **We swear not to betray my trust—not to betray Diana,**

 **Not by word, or look, or deed, waking or sleeping, by speech or by silence in this land or any other. If I do, may fire burn me, air smother me, earth swallow me, and water cover my grave." They said together**

 **"It's over," she whispered**

 **"It's over," he said,**

 **"You'll give the rose back to Diana?" she asked steadily.**

 **"I'll give it to her."**

 **"Good night, Adam," she said then turned and walked toward the lighted windows of her house**

Alex walked into the back room, "how did the spell go?" she asked

"what do you mean? You were there" Melanie said

"no I wasn't" Alex said coolly

"you were there, even I remember" Nick said

"you came back 20 minutes after you left saying that you mother changed her mind, you were wearing this blue top" Susan said

"what?" Alex said

"you-were-there" Faye said as if explaining to a 3 year old

"no I wasn't, at 7 20 I was at-" Alex trailed off "let me use your laptop" Alex said to Laurel. She connected her phone to the laptop.

"her is yesterday's footage" Alex said turning the laptop, I was at 249 demount road at 7:20 pm" Alex said

The group saw a video of Alex cuffed to a rail on the roof, the saw how she escaped and dismantled a bomb

"why were you tied to the railing?" Adam asked

"my mum has a few ideas about selfdefence, she think training me to be an assassin will help me when hunters attack and magic fails me"

"and I complain about my dad?" Diana said

"trust me living in my house is as good as living without parents" Alex said "back to the point I wasn't in the basement when that happened" Alex switched to the footage in her basement. "I don't have dirty blonde hair, green eyes and I definitely do not wear any other colour but black" Alex said.

"and if you look there, the necklace I gave Diana was glowing. And if it really was me the necklace wouldn't have been glowing because it would have sensed my presence" Alex concluded

"im sorry in still stuck on why you were tied to the railing" Deborah said

"it's a form of training" Alex said

"doesn't you mother care about your health or wellbeing?" Susan asked

"she doesn't care about anything that concerns me unless its magic or training, one of the reasons I hate magic" Alex said logging out of her security network. She and Nick locked eyes. Something flicked in his dark eyes, it seemed like sympathy and understanding.

"what matters here is that I have a duple ganger and there is something out there that we need to stop" Alex said, there was a new tone in her voice. Danger and determination.

 **Alex found a note from Faye asking her to meet her at Faye's house after class, she obliged.**

" **what do you want Faye?" Alex asked**

" **I wanted to let you know that I have cracked the mystery. I know you wrote that poem about Adam. You know "each night I lay dreaming about the one who kissed me and awoke my desire?" I think you know the poem" Faye said**

" **and last night my little spies saw you too kissing" Faye added**

" **it wasn't like that" Alex flushed**

" **I understand I mean Alex is very attractive, but I don't think Diana would like to find out that the girl she oh-so-trusts- was kissing her boyfriend" Faye said**

" **what do you want?" Alex said**

" **the skull, I want the skull" Faye said "get it for me and I will keep this between you and I"**

 **Alex shut her eyes tight**

" **I will do it" Alex said.**


End file.
